richness of its promises to the people of God, and its striking resemblance to some passages in the book of Revelation, we find a very singular remark which seems, to our dark and finite understandings, to mar the beauty of the description; we refer to Isaiah lxv. 17–25. At v. 20, the prophet says, “but the sinner, being a hundred years old shall be accursed;” but for this sentence, we should have taken the whole passage for a figurative description of the happiness of the heavenly state allotted for the righteous after death. In imitation, perhaps of this singular passage, our poet introduces into his description of the renewal of the _Golden age_, the acute remarks with which the preceding extract terminates, and in which it seems as if he had anticipated the wars which have since desolated Christendom.[68] CHAPTER IV. ERRORS OF THE ANCIENT CHRONOGRAPHERS. 1. Authority of the Scripture texts superior to that of the ancient chronographers—The testimony of the latter chiefly in favour of the Septuagint—The testimonies of Josephus, Theophilus, Africanus, Eusebius, and the author of the Paschal Chronicle selected for examination—Table I. Containing their statements relating to the _First age_ of the world—Errors of Josephus—Corruption of his text—Mr. Cunninghame’s detection of his blunders in regard to the first age—His discovery of the truth from the titulary statements of the first and second books of Josephus—His explanation of the Jewish fraud to which this author appears to have been accessory—Error of Theophilus, and accuracy of Africanus in this age—Similar error of Eusebius and Syncellus, and accuracy of Epiphanius and the author of the Paschal Chronicle.